Beyond the Mohs Scale: Raw Material Choice and the Production of Stone Vases in a Late Minoan Context

This chapter explains the wear patterns on vesicular basalt handstones and grinding slabs, with particular emphasis on the handstones from Late Bronze and Iron Age contexts. It presents implications for handstones and grinding slabs from other sites, where similar wear patterns based upon analysis of the assemblage from Tel Yin'am. Hypothetically, the study of handstones from Egypt should provide evidence for wear patterns similar to those on handstones from Tel Yin'am, and presumably elsewhere in Canaan and Israel. The use-wear modifications of the handstones present a more complex picture. Morphological differences between the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age handstones observed at Tel Yin'am provide some insight. With rare exception, such as a Late Bronze Age handstone (AN111386) which is well worn on the primary use surface but has no distinct signs of wear on the roughly finished edges, the vast majority of Late Bronze and Iron Age handstones have distinct wear on their edges.